Helpful Score: 4
Just read this - a great read if you love the coast of Maine. Also great if you have a family with "complicated" members. It helps to understand their quirks and gets into the heads of every person in your family.
Helpful Score: 1
After having read so many reviews of how much they disliked this book on Goodreads, and then the opposite on here, I was unsure of what to expect. I however, found this book to be refreshingly real. I was annoyed by the characterization of Ellen, the mother. I found her to be self-absorbed and grating. The brother, Jake, was over the top with his pushiness, but that was the author's point. All the flaws the characters displayed were magnified for fiction, but true in nature. And in a person's worse case scenario, emotions are heightened. The author's wording was unique, and I felt drawn into the circle. My one true complaint was how abruptly the book ended. I much prefer a conclusion that wraps up loose ends or promises me a sequel, and this book ended without any of that and almost in the middle of a sentence. It did not detract totally from my overall impression of the book. Good read!
Helpful Score: 1
awesome book... kept me interested the whole time. the ending was NOT predictable, which can sometimes be annoying...
I am not really sure if I understood this book to its full extent. A family meets on an island by Maine to celebrate the father's 75th birthday. The oldest son, Daniel, is in a wheelchair. His wife Brenda is pregnant with their first child that isn't really his because he cannot have children. This fact bothers him a lot. Jake, the middle child, and his wife Liz are pregnant with twins from IVF treatments. I didn't like this guy at all. He was a very immature and selfish character. Hiliary is the youngest child. She is six months pregnant and doesn't know who the father is. Jake is constantly yelling at her to take responsibility for her life. He is very mean to her. Ellen is the mother. She has taken a strange liking to the widow of her friend. Sometimes she sits and fantasizes about this man. The father, Joe, seems to be the only normal one in the bunch. I almost feel sorry with this character because he has to deal with these people.
It's a great book in which the author depicts how an emotionally divided family comes together for a celebration. As the great event that brings them to see each other after some time apart unexpected events unfold.
